Public Transport

Introduction

Boarding train with bike

Combining cycling with trains, buses, trams and other services often offers a good alternative to driving for longer, door-to-door commuting or leisure journeys. While public transport and cycles are ideal travelling companions, operators don't always make it that easy.

What are the benefits?

In the UK, cycling could:

Triple the number of households within 15 minutes of a rail station when measured aginst walking

Put almost all households within reach of a regular daily bus service

Increase the catchment area for passengers by a factor of sixteen.

Cycling brings passengers to rail and bus stations from all points of the compass, helps minimise connection times and is particularly useful for people who don't have access to cars in rural areas and where services are more sporadic. Cycling and walking also disperse huge numbers of passengers at busy stations in a way not possible with car-based travel.

Cycling is well integrated with the rail network in other countries. In the Netherlands, for instance, 1,000 cycle parking spaces at a railway station is considered a small amount.

To make it as easy as possible to combine cycling with public transport, cyclists need:

Good access to, from, through and within stations and interchanges for cyclists

Safe, secure, well located and sufficient cycle parking, storage and hire facilities at stations and interchanges

CTC isn’t taking sides on whether or not to build HS2 Phase 1 (the proposed high speed rail line between London and the West Midlands), but we do want to make sure that cyclists get the best deal out...